A Croydon fashion designer said he felt like he was "watching his baby die in his hands" after his entire stock went up in flames.

Samuel Kaiser had stored all his unique works dating back three years in the Shurgard in Purley Way, which caught fire on New Year's Eve.

Kaiser designs unique items for his boutique brand GVENY, selling mostly online but focusing on shows and was to have his dresses shown at Paris Fashion Week in just 20 days' time.

The designer was due to showcase a minimum of ten pieces at the show but his entire stock has been destroyed in the devastating Shurgard fire.

One of GVENY's designs destroyed in the fire (Image: GVENY)

He says his dresses vary a lot in price but his most expensive design sold for £12,000 and he is garnering celebrity attention including former I'm a Celeb contestant and Miss England, Amy Willerton who recently wore his outfits.

Kaiser was caught up in the police cordons and diversions off Purley Way on Monday (December 31), when the fire started, at around 7.45pm.

However it was not until the next day, when his wife saw the coverage of the fire online, that Kaiser realised what had happened.

Samuel Kaiser lost all his work over the last three years apart from just three dresses (Image: GVENY)

An estimated half a million pounds worth of unique dresses and designs have gone up in smoke, along with a number of others who lost some of their most treasured possessions as well as their livelihoods.

Kaiser now has just three dresses, which he had taken out of storage to use for a magazine shoot, but he says they too could easily have been consumed by the flames.

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The Shurgard Purley Way fire

"I took three dresses out for a magazine shoot but I could have lost those too," he said.

"I haven't got any support from Shurgard. We got an email yesterday saying they would offer support and help us with the claims process but that's all we've got so far.

"I'm going to try to see if I can recover something but it's a huge amount of work that is lost. At the moment I just want to see what happens before I even start thinking about creating.

The Shurgard building is now crumpled and collapsed

"It takes me hours, sometimes even hundreds of hours on each piece.

"It feels like I watched my baby die in my hands. I hope there is someone out there that can help me."

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A spokesperson for Shurgard said: "Shurgard representatives at the scene are working in close collaboration with the London Fire Brigade and the local police department to provide them with all necessary information on the store.

"The care for customers of the 1,198 rented units at the Croydon Purley Way store is the first priority for Shurgard.

"Shurgard will undertake every effort to support all customers for which the event means a loss of their stored goods.

"As a first measure a dedicated Shurgard team will be contacting every customer of the store within the next 48 hours to help them and support them with their claim procedures."